BRUUUUUUCE!!!!!!!!

Today, as you all know, is Bruce Springsteen's Birthday.

I will spare you the "why Bruce is so important to me" speech, i think everyone who reads this blog has already heard that little speech and also, i don't think many of the care. Therefore, I will go straight to Listville.

Number of Times I have seen Bruce with a state-by-state breakdown
9 - 4 times in New Jersey, 3 times in Pennsylvania, once in Massachusetts and once in New York.

Ranking of the concerts by best OVERALL BRUCE experience
1. 8-27-99 - Boston Mass (Front Row Show)
2. 11-8-05 - Philadelphia, PA - Bruce Solo on the Devils and Dust Tour
3. 8-9-03 - Philadelphia, PA - The Rising Stadium Tour

Ranking of the concerts by MOST MEMORABLE for me
1. 8-27-99 - Boston Mass - I sat in the front row.
2. 6-20-06 - Camden, New Jersey - I went with Seamus, Maureen, Mark, and Amy
3. 11-8-05 - Spectrum, Philadelphila PA - Devils and Dust tour. I went by myself and really enjoyed it. It was, by far and wide, the best Bruce concert I have seen.
4. 7-27-03 - Giant Stadium, New Jersey - I went with my Mom and Aunt Louise, Amy, and Jason & Kristin.
5. 4-26-06 - Asbury Park New Jersey - Dude, it was Bruce IN Asbury Park playing the 4th show with his new band... AND i met his banjo player before the show.
6. 6-26-93 - Madison Square Garden, NY - Dude, Matthews called me with free tickets 2 days before the show. He sang Atlantic City.
7. 8-9-06 - Lincoln Financial Field - Phila PA - I went with Amy, Matthews, and Jamie. Two Words: Trapped and For You played back to back.
8. 8-7-99 - Continental Airlines Arena New Jersey - We drove down from Vermont with Joe and Tammy - It was Amy's first Bruce show and my first show seeing the E Street Band. We had really bad seats, but dude, it was the boss.
9. 8-29-02 - My First Bruce show. It was awesome and he sang Atlantic City and it was at the end of a really shitty summer for me, so I was stoked.

Ranking of concerts by SETLIST
1. 08-09-03 - The Linc in Philly - He opened with Adam Raised a Cain, and played Trapped, For You, She's the One, Spirit in the Night, Badlands, and Thunder Road. THEN he played Hungry Heart, Glory Days and Born to Run back-to-back-to-back. THEN Rosalita and Dancin' in the Dark.

*I am not even going to have a second place because first place was so freaking awesome. Dude, he played Trapped. TRAPPED!!! Can you believe that???? How great is that? When it started, I grabbed Amy's arm and yelled "IT'S TRAPPED... HE'S PLAYING TRAPPED." I then looked at Jamie and yelled "DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE? HE'S PLAYING TRAPPED!!!." It was like that zen moment when you just thinking "man, this is awesome, I am seeing Bruce with Amy and Matthews and it's cool... the sound it this place isn't the best, but hey it's cool, I'm seeing the boss and he's rocking The Ties that Bind..." and then the moment you've been waiting for at every single Bruce Concert you've ever been to actually happens. The organ starts... by the 3rd note, all the knowledgable Bruce fans in the crowd know what is happening and simultaneously roar their collective approval of what they will know will possibly be the best 5 minutes and 30 seconds of all the Bruce concerts they have ever seen combined. And it is true, it was the best song I have ever heard live. Of all the bands and all the concerts I have ever seen, hearing that song was the pinacle of all songs ever.

Bruce played that songs in the United States only 3 times that summer. He has like 500 songs in his arsenal and I was lucky enough to get to hear Trapped.

3. 08-27-99 - Front Row Show - He opened with Candy's Room, The Ties that Bind and Adam Raised a Cain. He then played a five-song string of Mansion on the Hill, Point Blank, Youngstown, Murder Inc. & Badlands. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out, New York City Serenade, Jungleland, and Raise Your Hand.

Kind of like Trapped, New York City Serenade was just so awesome... it was just bizarre that he would play it. It was almost surreal and I looked at the Bruce Geek sitting next to me and said "Is this New York City Serenade?" And he said "I think it is..." And we just kind of had this puzzled look on our faces. I remember thinking "at what point did Bruce say 'Tonight I am going to play what is possibly the weirdest, arguably the most audience-unfriendly song of my entire catalog.'" It is a song that is almost impossible to sing along to and would seem best suited to be played at a tiny theater with just a group of hard-core fans in the crowd. But who cares... I got to hear it and it was awesome. (again only played 4 times on the whole tour.)

4. 11-08-06 - The Spectrum, Philly on the Devils and Dust Tour - A handful of my favorite bruce songs played accoustic - you really can't go wrong. Atlantic City, Incident on 57th Street, Be True (on piano), Highway Patrolman, Devils and Dust, Johnny 99 sung through this thing that distorted his voice... it was really cool.

5. 08-07-99 - Continental Airlines Areana, NJ - Meeting Across the River and Jungleland back-to-back. Factory, Point Blank, Youngstown, Murder Inc, Badlands, Out in the Street, and Tenth Avenue Freeze-out in a row! Don't Look Back. Awesome.

Ranking of Concerts by PEOPLE I WENT WITH
1. 06-20-06 - Camden N.J. - Seamus, Amy, Maureen & Mark
2. 07-27-03 - Giant Stadium - Mom, Louise, Amy, Jason & Kristin
3. 08-27-99 - Front Row Show - Amy
4. 06-28-93 - MSG NYC - Matthews
5. 09-07-03 - Linc - Amy, Matthews, Jamie
6. 08-07-06 - Continental Airlines - Amy, Joe & Tammy
7. 08-29-92 - Manny, Choniere

SINGLE BEST BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT MOMENTS
1. Bruce slapped my hand - i think everyone knows that would be number 1.
2. Trapped
3. Candy's Room to open the Front Row Show
5. Seamus singing along to "Pay me my money down."
6. Seamus singing along to "Oklahoma Home."
4. Seamus asking me "What's for dinner?" while Bruce was singing Maria's Bed for the first time on the entire tour.
5. Be True on the Devils and Dust tour - he played it on the piano and screwed up really bad and had to start over... it was really neat to see.
6. Seeing my mom and aunt Louise rock with the boss.
7. Badlands at the Front Row Show - the crowd was really really into the whooaaoh - whooaoh- whooaoh part so after the song was over, bruce started playing the riff on his guitar again and the crowd picked up on it right away even though the band didn't know exactly what Bruce was doing... then Max picked up the beat and then the rest of the band... that was freaking awesome.
8. Amy rocking with the boss in the front row and pumping her fist in the air and singing the words all wrong.
9. Jungleland at the New Jersey show.
10. Atlantic City on the Devils & Dust show.

Peace.

p.s.
when bruce sings Atlantic City, he says "Now there's trouble busing in from out of state."
A few weeks ago at Fiona's birthda party, seamus was playing my banjo and started to sing Atlantic City, and he said: "Now there's trouble coming in from outerspace."
seamus is part of the folk process. I hope someday seamus records an album and uses his alternate lyrics for Atlantic City.

I drew this picture of Seamus singing his version of Atlantic City: